


Captain America and the Howling Commandos: 1943-1945

by AgeOfAlejandro



Category: Captain America (2011), Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Humor, M/M, comm: capkink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-22
Updated: 2012-02-22
Packaged: 2017-10-31 14:42:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/345255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgeOfAlejandro/pseuds/AgeOfAlejandro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Subtle about what?" Bucky asked, peering sleepily at the cover: <i>Captain America and the Howling Commandos: 1943-1945</i> by Fredick Williams. "Us? And why're you reading that? You were there."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captain America and the Howling Commandos: 1943-1945

**Author's Note:**

> this is for a [](http://capkink.livejournal.com/profile)[**capkink**](http://capkink.livejournal.com/) prompt: _In the modern world, history authors realize that when Captain America's only special request was that a certain James Buchanan Barnes was always stationed with him, it strongly suggested homosexuality. Explore this in any way at all. I just want to see something where Steve is recognized as a hero and understood to be homosexual. Steve can read it modern day, an Avenger can read it as they wait for him to thaw, it can be an awesome piece of the history book, whatever! Go nuts, Anon! =)_

Steve hummed and settled against the pillows as he flicked the page over, jostling the bed. Bucky rolled over and cracked an eye to glare at him. "What?" he demanded muzzily, curling the duvet under his chin and blinking irritably.

"Hm? Oh," Steve said and lowered the book to look at Bucky, "thought you were asleep."

"Was," Bucky replied grumpily. "Then you started makin' noise and movin' too much."

Steve dropped the book to rest against his upraised knee and reached out to smooth Bucky's messy hair away from his eyes. "Sorry. I _really_ ought to remember what a light sleeper you are by now," he said with a chuckle.

Bucky closed his eyes and sighed as Steve stroked his unruly hair. "Probably, but 's ok. What were you hummin' about?"

"I guess we weren't as subtle as we thought during the war," Steve said, giving him a lopsided smile and holding up the book.

"Subtle about what?" Bucky asked, peering sleepily at the cover: _Captain America and the Howling Commandos: 1943-1945_ by Fredick Williams. "Us? And why're you reading that? You were there."

"Yeah, us," Steve agreed. "And because I 'm curious about how they see us these days. Wanna hear the section I was reading? It's kinda long."

"Sure." Bucky nodded and shifted to lie on his back, stretching out under the covers and snaking an arm around Steve's calf.

Steve flipped back a page. "There has been some debate over the nature of Captain Rogers and Sargent Barnes' relationship, but the current consensus is that they were romantically involved. Rogers's gutsy rescue of Barnes from HYDRA's heavily protected facility in Austria is generally cited as the first of three key pieces of evidence. The Captain crossed deep into enemy territory, armed only with his shield and entirely on his own, to rescue Barnes from the Red Skull's clutches. Those are not the actions of a man trying to save his friend and comrade. They are those of a man trying to save his lover.

"After that, Rogers and Barnes absolutely insisted on being stationed together and were rarely apart. Howard Stark later said, 'If you couldn't find one of them, you sought out the other, because the one you wanted was never far away,'" Steve said, his lips curving into a smile. "When he was interviewed for this book in 2005, Jim Morita, the last surviving Commando, said that it was understood that they were a couple.

"'You don't run off into Nazi territory into the hands of an insane monster like the Red Skull for just your friend, even your best friend, so even though we never saw anything direct, we knew. They were always together, they bickered like an old married couple, and they were so in tune to each other I swear they could have made battle plans without exchanging more than five words. It was completely natural for them, like it had always been that, and it made us, the rest of the Commandos, a little uncomfortable at first. But it was Cap and Bucky and they were never weird about it, so eventually it stopped mattering.'"

Bucky chuckled and sighed, stroking a convenient ankle. "'Never weird about it,' huh?" he said with a grin. "Aw, thanks Jim," he said dryly, "You reckon he's still around?"

"Maybe," Steve said, scanning the book. "We should find out. There's more, but it focuses on, uh, after the train."

"Ah," Bucky replied. At the behest of SHEILD psychologists, they'd discussed, in halts and awkward pauses, the period between Bucky's fall and Steve's crash, and it was a something Steve in particular was keen to avoid talking about. "So whaddaya say we see if we can hunt down Morita?"

Steve gave Bucky a little smile that said _I see you, Bucky, you and your tricks, and thank you_ , and nodded. "I say yeah, let's do it. I wanna see those endless orchards and canals and fields of his. And Yosemite, if we can swing it."

"He's gotta be in his nineties. I don't think trekking through the mountains is going to be good for him," Bucky pointed out.

"I know that," Steve replied, putting away the book for the night and scooching down to lie with Bucky. "Afterward. Or before. I don't know. But I want to see it, if we can."

Bucky grinned. "Should make it an Avengers fieldtrip, because I want to see Tony try to survive _nature_."

"You just want to see if you can feed him to some poor hapless creature," said Steve. "I can already see it. Or you trying to push him in a river."

"I'm pretty sure Fury'd string me up if I tried to get Tony eaten, 'romantically involved' with a national hero or not," Bucky answered as he tried to find a comfortable position.

Steve bore his wiggling with patience. "You're a national hero, too, you know."

"Yeah, for saving your scrawny ass all those years so you could get to be Captain America," Bucky said, gesturing grandly at the last as he settled his head on Steve's shoulder.

"Oh shut up. You know what I mean, Buck. Quit being difficult."

Bucky gave him a grin but didn't say anything, sighing contentedly instead as Steve slid an arm around him and stroked his side idly. "But seriously. Nature. Tony. Bound to be hilarious."

Steve chuckled. "Probably," he agreed as he reached up to turn off the headboard lamp. "I'll claim it's a team bonding thing."

"Do it, do it do it do iiit!" Bucky said, grinning ear to ear and pleased as hell Steve was going to play along. "Oh my god. This is going to be amazing."

Steve chuckled. "Yeah, it will," he agreed with a sigh and a yawn.

"Are you sacking out on me?" Bucky asked with amusement.

"Mhm," Steve replied, his voice already turning muzzy. "That a problem?"

"Not one you can't make up to me later," Bucky said slyly. "I mean, you _did_ wake me up earlier."

"'M already agreeing to help you feed Tony to a bear. What more do you want from me?"

"Nothing that can't wait," Bucky answered and grinned to himself. Tony surrounded by too much nature was gonna absolutely gonna make his _year_.


End file.
